The world has been suffering for a long time.
"Is it illegal to sell clothes in stock this year?" "Did you start planting cotton when you placed an order?" Recently, a video complaining about the "super long pre-sale" of the Internet celebrity store has triggered discussions among netizens.
Red Star Capital Bureau found that on Taobao, Douyin, Kuaishou and other platforms, the labels of "30-day pre-sale" and "45-day pre-sale" can be seen everywhere.
Taobao merchant An Yuan (pseudonym) told Red Star Capital Bureau that merchants take pre-sales mostly to avoid the inventory backlog risk faced by the apparel industry. However, the rise of the ultra-long pre-sale atmosphere, Cheng Qing (pseudonym), an industry insider who has been engaged in Taobao women's clothing for 10 years, believes that it began with the Internet red shop.
In the eyes of e-commerce industry insiders, pre-sales are normal. However, the industry also generally scoffs at the "ultra-long pre-sale" model of larger online red stores, believing that they are unwilling to take any risks and transfer the risks to consumers.
Under the ultra-long pre-sale atmosphere, how should consumer rights and interests be safeguarded?
Millions of fans big V shelled the women's clothing online store pre-sale is too long
Netizen: Did you start planting cotton when you placed an order?
"How long is the pre-sale? The clothes you buy in the spring, the summer doesn't arrive. ”
In mid-April, a spit video from the million-fan Internet celebrity blogger "Wen Genie" quickly triggered the emotions of netizens, setting off a wave of "condemnation" of the long pre-sale time of online clothing.
Internet celebrity Wen Genie shelled "super long pre-sale"
"Is it illegal to sell clothes in stock this year?" "Did you start planting cotton when you placed an order?" Netizens have commented on the long pre-sale time of online store clothing. Red Star Capital Bureau noted that many netizens reported that the pre-sale time of some clothing merchants on e-commerce platforms such as Taobao is too long, and the pre-sale of 15 days and 30 days is very common, and even more up to 45 days.
Among them, the net red women's clothing store is the "hardest hit area" of the super long pre-sale. Xie Qi (pseudonym), who is keen to buy clothes at an internet celebrity women's clothing store, showed Red Star Capital a recent order.
On March 21, Xie Qi placed an order for a pre-sale dress at a Taobao internet celebrity store, and the order showed that it was shipped before May 5, with a full 45 days in between. During the period, Xie Qi asked the store customer service several times when to ship the goods, and the other party only replied: "The warehouse will arrange to send it out as soon as possible." ”
Xie Qi shows off his online shopping orders
In the end, the dress reached Xie Qi's hand on April 24, a month after the order time. "I had planned to wear this velvet dress in the spring, but it is now 30 degrees, and I can only wait until the autumn to wear it, and the new clothes have become seasonal," Xie Qi said helplessly.
It is not only Xie Qi who has the same experience. On the Little Red Book APP, netizens even established a topic of "hating pre-sale", which has been viewed more than 10 million times so far.
The topic of "hating pre-sale" of the Little Red Book has been read by more than 10 million
In addition to Taobao, Douyin women's clothing stores have also embarked on the road of "super long pre-sale". Red Star Capital Bureau found that some Douyin women's clothing stores will display a "pre-sale" label in the logistics office, and the pre-sale time is generally one month.
Kuaishou also has a similar situation, Red Star Capital Bureau entered the Kuaishou small shop women's clothing channel, recommended in the top of several live broadcast rooms, the order page shows "shipped within 30 days after payment" and "shipped within 45 days after payment".
The "pre-sale" selfishness of the online store:
Avoid inventory overstock risk
In fact, pre-sales are not a new phenomenon for online shopping. As early as 2014, the pre-sale model has already emerged. A "Tmall Pre-sale Business Management Specification" issued in December 2014 clearly stipulates the pre-sale model.
In the view of e-commerce industry insiders, the reason why more and more merchants adopt the pre-sale model is partly because the apparel industry is facing a high risk of inventory overstock.
Taobao merchant An Yuan (pseudonym) told the Red Star Capital Bureau: "Women's clothing is destined to be a large number of hoarding of goods in the industry, from the production point of view, order fabrics, accessories, and then to factory processing, are MOQ, if the merchant is not sure which sales are good, it is not easy to place orders for production." ”
For example, An Yuan said that small women's clothing stores each time on the new 5-8 models, even if each one only produces 100 pieces, for small shops may not be able to sell, once the inventory is hoarded more, Shangxin not only can not make money but also lose a sum.
The role of pre-sale is that it can give merchants a sales expectation. "Merchants can calculate a rough sales volume according to the pre-sale situation, the first batch of spot, and then make up the order according to the follow-up situation." An Yuan said.
It can be said that the "original intention" of the pre-sale model is designed to help merchants avoid a certain inventory backlog risk. Red Star Capital Bureau noted that the e-commerce platform actually has a "relaxed" attitude towards the pre-sale model. Taking Taobao as an example, the platform's pre-sale rules show that merchants can choose a pre-sale period of up to 30 days.
The Taobao platform stipulates that the pre-sale is up to 30 days
In addition, the impact of the epidemic is also one of the reasons why merchants choose to pre-sell. Red Star Capital Bureau found that many Taobao and Kuaishou merchants will explain on the sales page that they cannot ship on time due to the epidemic.
In addition, the senior e-commerce merchant "Zhang Baozi Baozi" also publicly stated that due to the impact of the epidemic, merchants have lost money because of the backlog of goods, so many merchants dare not hoard goods, so they determine sales volume reproduction through pre-sale. On the other hand, in the production process, some factories have temporarily stopped work due to the epidemic and cannot produce on time.
The "super long pre-sale" ethos originated from internet celebrity stores
Insiders: Transfer risk to consumers
"Pre-sales are normal, but pre-sales up to 1 month, 2 months are not normal." Talking about the atmosphere of "ultra-long pre-sale", Taobao merchant An Yuan said.
Like An Yuan, Cheng Qing (pseudonym), an industry insider who has been engaged in Taobao women's clothing for 10 years, does not agree with the "ultra-long pre-sale" model, "I think it is unreasonable to have a user experience first, and it is unreasonable to wait 1 month after buying something." ”
Where did the ultra-long pre-sale trend arise? Cheng Qing gave the answer: net red shop.
Cheng Qing told the Red Star Capital Bureau: "When Taobao women's clothing first started, the pre-sale time was not so exaggerated, and the store was basically shipped within 48 hours. ”
In his view, internet celebrity shops are different from ordinary stores, and most of the sales of internet celebrity shops are concentrated on the day of the new day, and there may be a sudden increase in sales. The Taobao platform defaults to delivery within 48 hours, more than 48 hours will be displayed as "full pre-sale", for the sake of insurance, the general Internet red shop will choose pre-sale, so that there is time to prepare.
"But the internet celebrity shop will not be in a large number of stocks before the new", Cheng Qing said, most of the internet red shops will even choose to ship in batches, the first batch of consumer returns will be used to make up orders, sold to the second batch of consumers.
Red Star Capital Bureau searched on Platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Weibo and found that many netizens said that after placing an order in the Net Red Shop, they received clothes with "wearing traces".
Image from Little Red Book
In Anyuan's view, the industry generally scoffs at the "ultra-long pre-sale" model of larger internet red stores, "Obviously thousands of people are waiting to buy, or pre-sale for 1-2 months, this kind of store is obviously unwilling to take any risk and transfer the risk to consumers." ”
China Consumer Association named "ultra-long pre-sale"
Some consumers have switched to online brick-and-mortar stores
The "super long pre-sale" is also overdrawing consumers' desire to buy, and many consumers are fleeing from internet celebrity women's clothing stores and turning to offline physical stores.
Consumer Liu Che (pseudonym) told Red Star Capital Bureau that after the epidemic in 2020, she obviously felt that the pre-sale time was getting longer and longer, and many clothes waited for 1-2 months, and found that the style and quality were not suitable after arriving, and finally chose to return.
"It's so hard to wait, in the last year I have chosen to buy clothes in offline stores," Liu Che said.
On April 28, the China Consumer Association also named the ultra-long pre-sale. According to the China Consumer Association's "new" consumer complaint report, some network operators use unfair standard terms to reduce their obligations and responsibilities and increase consumers' responsibilities. For example, some online merchants set a very long pre-sale period for pre-sale goods, and at the same time set unfair standard terms such as no return and exchange of pre-sale goods and no refund of prepaid funds.
"Ultra-long pre-sale" appears frequently in online shopping, can consumers only choose "return"? How should consumers safeguard their legitimate rights and interests?
Red Star Capital Bureau found that the Taobao platform stipulates that the seller violates the commitment of the time of delivery, the price of the transaction, the mode of delivery, etc., and needs to pay 10% of the actual transaction amount of the product to the buyer as the default amount. Platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou will also impose corresponding penalties on overtime orders.
In addition to the provisions of the platform itself, the Measures for the Punishment of Acts Infringing on the Rights and Interests of Consumers (2020 Revision) clearly stipulate that those who fail to provide goods or services in accordance with the agreement shall perform the agreement or return the advance payment in accordance with the requirements of the consumer, and shall bear the interest of the advance payment and the reasonable fees that the consumer must pay. If there is no agreement on the refund, the refund amount shall be converted according to the calculation method beneficial to the consumer.
Xinhua News Agency also pointed out in the report that it hopes that the e-commerce platform will set up a specific regulatory system, clearly regulate the price, duration, quality, and return conditions of pre-sold goods, deal with the problems of "breach of contract" and "false publicity" behind the unilateral termination of the contract by merchants, and set up complaint channels to give certain punitive measures to merchants who have been complained about many times.
Red Star News reporter Yu Yao Qiang Ya Milling
Edited by Yu Dongmei